Ticket Options

Question Profile

Question Details

TICKET ARCHIVE -> DVD Burner (slow) and iDVD

TuckerdogAVL - Jan 1, 2007 - 5:14 pm

I purchased a LaCie16X Burner, their latest. Comes shipped with Toast 7 Titanium. I need the ability to burn movies, more so than music audio. My 2002 Quicksilver 2002 (G4, 933mhz, 256L2cache, 2mgL3cache), 1.5GB Memory, 133 bus speed, running 10.4.8; I assume the LaCie is 800 vs 400 firewire, but we'll get to that later. I had created a movie on iDVD (it's 1hr/7 minutes long). SUPERDrive internal (Pioneer DVDRW 2X?4X?) would take eight hours or more to burn...and was dumping out of the burn. I gave up. Bought the LaCie. My first DVD (the 1hr/7min) one took 2.5hrs to burn. Now, I can understand it taking 45 minutes or 1 hr if an 800firewire takes 30-40mins, but 2.5 hrs? Here's how I created the movie: I made it in iMovie. Saved it as a .mov and then dragged that over to the lame themes from Toast to create the burned DVD. (everything "Default" as far as I can tell).

My first question: Doesn't this sound like there is something wrong? Or, did I do something wrong? Is it supposed to encode on the fly? Am I supposed to save differently? Oh, I tried another imovie saved to .mov (I think it makes them into quicktimes) that was 10mins long. That took 15 minutes to burn. How could this just be a 400 vs. 800 thing?

Second Question: Is there anyway to bypass Toast now and have the LaCie launch in iDVD? (Thought I might try going into iMovie, then iDVD directly, but the computer doesn't "see" the LaCie when iDVD launches).

And Third question? There was a LaCie DiscBurning Driver that I had difficulty loading, but after six attempts I finally got a "software installed" dropdown, rebooted etc.

So, as you can tell, this is how I have spent New Year's Day. It's 6pm. I started at 9:30am with breaks. Simple! Easy! Burn 100s of DVDs and 1000s of hours of Music! Video! Yeah!!!!

DeltaMac - Jan 1, 2007 - 9:52 pm

Older versions of iDVD do not see an external burner, so I'm guessing that you may not have version 5 or newer of iDVD. The best external support is with iLife '06.
Encoding time is the bulk of burning a video DVD. It is tied in with your processor speed, the amount of RAM you have available, the speed of your system bus, and the write speed of your burner. The encoding time plus the burn time will NOT get anywhere close to the play time. What you get actually seems pretty good for the slow processor that you have. Burning video just will not be close to an audio disk burn. The encoding process is most of the difference.
Upgrade to iLife '06 to best use the external burner with iDVD.
Your third question, I can't decide what the question is - ?
If you want an encoded burn closer to the playing time, upgrade to a faster system, The encoding plus burn time will always be longer than the eventual playing time,in my experience.

TuckerdogAVL - Jan 2, 2007 - 9:43 am

Thanks. The 3rd question is: Is there an actual Discburning app or was this just a driver that was put on the system? And if so, am I sure it is there?

I also discovered that the discs I was burning were just for "up to 4X" speed vs. the "up to 16x" speed of the sample they sent. I burned the second 1hr/20min movie in about an hour.

What can I upgrade to make things faster? I don't have $2500 to spend on a new computer, so "upgrading to a faster system" would cost what? And what would I buy? Thanks.

DeltaMac - Jan 2, 2007 - 4:21 pm

I don't know anything about the software that might be installed with the LaCie drive.
You could purchase and install a processor upgrade for your PowerMac. Your Quicksilver G4 has a variety of processor upgrades out. Go to www.macsales.com for a good list of possible upgrades. They would start at less than $200 and up.

TuckerdogAVL - Jan 2, 2007 - 6:13 pm

Thanks. Just as long as I'm not upgrading to the new "PC Intel." Want to keep from going down that path as long as possible.

DeltaMac - Jan 2, 2007 - 10:55 pm

I agree about the Intel PCs. You can continue to ignore those PC Intel systems forever, I know I will. I wouldn't get one of those on a bet.
Of course, the Mac intel systems are great, however, and you don't need to ever again use Windows. They are blazing fast in some tasks, and will be getting even more performance, and more advantage over the older PPC systems when Leopard is released this Spring. Don't allow anyone to let you test one, you won't want to go back to your PPC They are FAST!
- Dale